Data centers in Kittitas County, Washington: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Kittitas County's data center question centers on Cle Elum, where Blue Fern Development wants to build a $200 million, 100,000-square-foot data center near Interstate 90, drawing 20 megawatts of power and creating up to 40 jobs. Cle Elum's city council passed an emergency six-month moratorium on data center applications on July 31, 2026, three days after Blue Fern's plans were unveiled, and Kittitas County commissioners followed with their own six-month moratorium on August 10. County commissioners held a public hearing on September 15 on extending their moratorium by another six months; no result of that hearing has been published.

Residents pressed the city over water and power. "Is it possible to have a data center here that is not going to hurt us? I don't know yet," said Councilmember Beth Williams. Longtime resident John Carlson said data centers "take a lot of electricity and power that we need to sustain our regular usage." Blue Fern says the project would use closed-loop cooling needing about 80,000 gallons of water in its first year, after which the coolant would be recirculated.

The moratoriums may not stop Blue Fern's project. Its site is covered by a development agreement the city approved in 2002, and attorneys are still deciding whether a data center counts as a use already allowed under it. "Anybody in the city can be as mad as they can be, and they can come and yell at a council that has no power over those things," Councilmember Steven Harper said. Cle Elum's moratorium runs to January 31, 2027; Kittitas County's runs to February 10, 2027, unless extended.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.